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The Temple of Sulis Minerva at Bath and the End of Roman Britain

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 November 2008

James Gerrard
James Gerrard
Affiliation:
Pre-Construct Archaeology Ltd, Units 54 and 55, Brockley Cross Business Centre, 96 End-well Road, Brockley, London SE4 2PD, UK. E-mail: .
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Abstract

The temple and baths dedicated to Sulis Minerva at Aquae Sulis (Bath, Somerset) are usually seen as significant in terms of Britain's ‘Romanization’. However, it is argued here that excavations carried out in the inner precinct of the temple revealed a sequence of great importance in understanding the end of Roman Britain. For the first time the documentary, stratigraphic and artefactual evidence is drawn together alongside a series of new radiocarbon dates which establish the date of the temple's demolition as AD 450–500. This raises interesting questions regarding the process of transformation from Roman to post-Roman in Somerset and beyond.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Antiquaries Journal , Volume 87 , September 2007 , pp. 148 - 164
Copyright
Copyright © The Society of Antiquaries of London 2007

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